WELCOME

Thank you for visiting the Community Indicators Initiative of Spokane, an online community resource offering a centralized location to learn more about Spokane County. Over 185 indicators are highlighted, all supported by trusted, reliable sources and continually updated.

These measures were chosen by residents of the County through a careful process and represent the preferences of what to measure from the available data. As you begin to examine the nine main categories, we hope you find the information relevant and useful in your daily work and decision-making.

ABOUT US

The Community Indicators Initiative of Spokane seeks to improve local, private and public decision-making by providing relevant data in an easily navigable website. The data will serve neutral information for all parties involved.

More specifically, the goals are:

To collect and share a broad spectrum of information for individual community members, policy makers, non-governmental organizations,

businesses, business organizations, researchers, and the press.

To track progress over time of various efforts toward a healthy, vibrant community.

To measure the community's progress spatially via benchmarks outside of the County.

To enable analysis of these trends.

To create a forum for a discussion of the issues underlying the data, either on-line or in person.

A community indicators project must receive its inspiration, general direction, and ultimately, validity from the citizens themselves. Appropriately, the Community Indicators Initiative of Spokane has convened individuals representing many groups, organizations and businesses over three rounds of focus groups since 2005 to arrive at the indicator set you see here.

OUR HOME

Nestled between the Cascade and Rocky Mountains, Spokane is as unique as its moniker "Near Nature, Near Perfect". Spokane County and environs form the 100th largest MSA by population, but combines the best of both a large and small city environment. A large, rushing river runs through the County, with lakes and mountains within a half an hour drive. The community is home for four universities, a diversifying economy, significant sports and cultural events.

FEATURED TREND

5.4.5 - Local Government Funding for Public Health per Capita: Local public health expenditures cover a variety of services regarded as essential to the health and safety of any community. They include the monitoring of food safety in restaurants and supermarkets, the quality of our drinking water, compliance by waste disposal systems and of disease prevention efforts.

The funding represented in this indicator does not include local government expenditures on substance abuse and mental health. Given the structure of local government, it primarily represents spending by county government. more information.